Newrest records annual sales of 2.5 billion euros, up 12%

• Leverage ratio negative at -0.8
• Completed investment plan of 80 million euros
• 96.5% of capital held by Group management

Toulouse, October 28, 2024 – Newrest, a major player in out-of-home catering, has announced a financial performance in line with its expectations for the year ended September 30, 2024, posting annual sales of 2.5 billion euros, up 12%. Founded by Olivier Sadran in 1996, the Toulouse-based group is recognized as the only company to operate in all catering and related services sectors.

Newrest’s business activities are well balanced, with around 50% in the airline sector, up 12.6% in 2024, and the remainder in other sectors such as foodservices, remote sites management and rail catering services, up 8.5%. More than 75% of Newrest’s activities are conducted internationally outside of France, with Newrest present in 55 countries.

In 2024, Newrest invested more than 80 million euros, up 33% year-on-year. Improved operational productivity is being achieved through digitization and automation and integration of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Luc Gérardin, Group CFO: “The Group’s financial performance is satisfactory for 2024, with EBIT at 234 million euros. Our cash position has increased significantly, enabling us to maintain a negative leverage ratio of -0.8″.

SALES BY BUSINESS SEGMENT

61% of the Group’s organic growth in 2024 was driven by the inflight catering business. The upturn in tourism in Europe and domestic traffic in the United States and Africa are underpinning this growth. The foodservice outsourcing sector continues to thrive across all regions, despite targeted social and industry events.

Inflight catering

Clients gave high praise to the team’s expertise in managing international hubs.

Olivier Sadran, CEO and founder of Newrest: “Our aim is to significantly improve the efficiency and productivity of our units by sharing our know-how, deploying our operations management system and integrating with our customer’s information systems. This quest for operational excellence has been hailed by Delta Airlines, the world’s largest airline, which has named two units in our network as the best operations in their respective regions.”

• Newrest has been chosen by Icelandair to manage its Reykjavik hub. The inflight catering unit will be modernized with robotized lines dedicated to tray assembly.
• Newrest has launched the Wissous Hub, near Orly, for Transavia. It houses the Group’s “Digital Factory”, a fully digitized unit equipped with visual recognition and artificial intelligence.
• Newrest is modernizing its units through major investment in Germany, Portugal, Mauritius, Nigeria and South Africa.

In addition, as part of its strategy to reduce its carbon footprint, Newrest has implemented a carbon modeling solution for its 90 inflight catering units (which account for around 50% of sales). Each unit draws up its own action plan and models its carbon trajectory in line with the Group’s objectives.

Remote sites and concession catering

Newrest intends to strengthen its out-of-home catering activities. These two sectors account for 33% of sales and are set to grow thanks to significant expansion in Morocco and France, where the Group has been very active in the B&I sector, notably by concluding a major partnership with the Pierre Fabre Group and Banque Populaire.

Costa Rica and Guyana have been particularly dynamic, with a 30% and 58% increase in their respective sales to become market leaders.

The most significant development was in Peru, where Newrest signed a catering contract with Anglo American for the Quellaveco mine. For Newrest, this is the largest mining contract in its history on the South American continent.

The dynamism of the teams in the remote site services and concession catering markets has enabled the group to build up a solid contractual base, in addition to the airline sector. The Group is also expanding its activities into facility management, a complementary field to catering.

In Cambodia, Newrest has recently won 30 concessions to open restaurants at the new Phnom Penh airport.

Rail catering

This business sector has been a vector of innovation for Newrest for many years. Today, the group is redefining the concept of logistics service for rail companies, with the opening in Paris in 2025 of its first almost entirely robotized logistics center. French TGVs are now equipped with order kiosks, a world first.

The popularity of this means of transport is growing with the opening of new lines in Europe and the introduction of modern trains adapted to passenger expectations. To support OBB in this move, the group has opened a new logistics center in Vienna and a new subsidiary in Germany.

OUTLOOK

Newrest continues to expand, signing an agreement with Compass Group plc to acquire its activities in Latin America (Chile, Colombia and Mexico). These operations, which generated sales of 600 million euros in 2023, cover several segments of foodservices and remote sites management. The acquisition, subject to the approval of local authorities, represents Newrest’s largest external growth operation to date.

The Group continues to strengthen its network of production and logistics centers. A new 14,000 m² infrastructure will be inaugurated in Madrid and a new unit in Sucy, near Orly, in March 2025. Process robotization and stakeholder information system integration with Winrest in-house ERP represent the most significant technological advances. The French network is strengthened with Bordeaux and Nantes. Newrest becomes the only operator to offer its services in 6 provincial cities in France.

The Group’s external growth operations will enable more than 15,000 new employees to join Newrest.